


Gold Lamé

by jamestiqueeriuskirk



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Star Trek, Established Relationship, Fantastic Racism, Internalized racism, M/M, Species Swap, Tribbles (Star Trek), for Thor anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 05:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13873674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamestiqueeriuskirk/pseuds/jamestiqueeriuskirk
Summary: “There’s no doubt as to what I am. Even if the way the tribbles reacted to me, and I to them, wasn’t terrible proof enough, I ran to sickbay straight away. I had it confirmed for myself.”Of course, he did. Thorough, discerning Loki. Never left a stone unturned, or a hypothesis untested, or well enough alone.(Loki learns something about himself.)





	Gold Lamé

**Author's Note:**

> Star Trek: the Original Series AU feat OG Klingons, back from before hair and makeup could afford to make them look like anything more elaborate than regular people with funky spray tans.

Finally Thor found him on the observation deck, stripped down to his undershirt. Where his science blues had gone, he couldn’t guess. Loki had not been back to his quarters, certainly, in all the three hours Thor had spent looking for him.

He didn’t announce his presence, but he could tell that Loki knew who it was that walked up behind him to place a soothing hand on his back, which he shrugged off.

Thor wanted to be the first to break the uncomfortable silence, but, like usual, Loki got the jump on him.

“It’s unprecedented, a Klingon science officer. A Klingon in Starfleet at all, really.”

“Loki,” Thor said, and that he was now “Loki,” and not “Mr. Laufeyjarson,” was conspicuous, but if there was ever a time to flout propriety, this was it- and it wasn’t like there was a single rule or regulation left to be broken, between the two of them. “The Klingon have their own science officers. Their own science vessels, great fleets of them. They’re not monsters, they’re beings like you or I.”

Loki laughed. “Like me, yes, more than like you.”

Thor frowned at himself. What he’d said had, indeed, been nonsensical.

Moving forward he vowed not to resort to platitudes, even though this one had not been meaningless in his head.

“Whatever you are…”

No, bad start to his new resolution, they _knew_ what Loki was, that was the _problem_ , at least in Loki’s mind, and his self-admonishing pause gave Loki the opportunity to cut in.

“There’s no doubt as to what I am. Even if the way the tribbles reacted to me, and I to them, wasn’t terrible proof enough, I ran to sickbay straight away. I had it confirmed for myself.”

Of course, he did. Thorough, discerning Loki. Never left a stone unturned, or a hypothesis untested, or well enough alone.

They hadn’t covered this at the academy, nor in any of the leadership seminars Thor has attended since, so Thor didn’t know how to proceed, except by intuition alone. His heart told him to comfort Loki, touch Loki, but Loki had already proven himself unreceptive to Thor’s touch. And Loki never denied Thor anything; he was denying himself, Thor realized.

“I shall tender my resignation immediately. The affair will be quite neat; I have no family to speak of, back on Earth. You may drop me at the next, most convenient, specifically _non-Federation_ spaceport.”

Thor wasn’t as quick to anger anymore as he was in his youth, but he felt hot all over, hearing Loki’s plans. They weren’t fair to either of them.

“You’ll do no such thing.”

Loki smiled at him, and the usual malice of his humor was dialed up to eleven. “You’d prefer to fire me yourself? Get the credit for both discovering and weeding out the Klingon _infestation_?”

“No one’s going to fire you. You’re the best science officer I’ve ever served with.”

He paused, to allow Loki to tut “ _with which I’ve served_ ,” but he didn’t. And pedantry was one of his favorite activities, especially when he could strike at Thor with it, take the captain down a peg, but he said absolutely nothing.

Thor continued. “This ship needs you. I need you.”

“But, surely, useful as I might be to you-“ Thor flinched, was that all Loki thought of himself? “-you don’t really _want_ me around, not now. Could you, truly, stand it? A constant reminder of-“ Loki’s voice failed him.

Never before had Loki been too timid to talk about _them_ , about what they did. The opposite, in fact. He delighted in brushing up against Thor while they were both on duty, in whispering too closely into his ear, in perching on his lap in the mess hall, even though that kind of fraternization between a captain and the officers under his direct command was, at best, dubious for them, and could get Thor court martialed, if anyone reported it as an abuse of power. 

And, now, he couldn’t even bring himself to speak of it.

There existed no anti-miscegenation laws anywhere in Federation territory, and very little anti-miscegenation sentiment de facto, certainly Thor had never heard of Loki harboring such beliefs, before just now, but turning a critical eye on the self distracted its gaze away from everything else.

“I’d prefer it if I didn’t need a reminder,” Thor said, once he’d finally found his voice.

Loki startled, like he’d been struck.

And Thor worried that maybe he’d been misunderstood- he wasn’t as good as Loki at witty subtleties, though, under Loki’s tutelage, he was improving everyday- so he clarified.

“I still want us to-“

“I understood you, you idiot,” Loki snapped, and Thor was relieved to hear him lash out, because something was better than nothing, and Loki had never had any respect for his authority, and he didn’t want Loki to start, now.

“Then- then what do you say?”

“I say you’re an idiot, Thor.”

Thor allowed himself to smile, and reach out to offer his hand to Loki, just in case he wanted to take it. “You already said that.”

It seemed Loki did, and Thor thrilled when he squeezed his palm.

“It bears repeating,” he told him. “I’m… glad for it.”

Thor beamed, and pulled him into his arms, then, heedless of the halfhearted way Loki protested, for a moment, before he settled into the embrace.

“It doesn’t just vanish the problem,” Loki warned, though it was muffled against Thor’s shoulder.

Thor would like it to, and he would like, even more, that there _was_ no problem- there wouldn’t be one, after all, if Loki didn’t think there was; no matter what species he was, he was a Federation citizen, by birth, so no one could take issue with his enrollment in Starfleet, at least not legally- but things just didn’t work like that.

“I know.”

He held Loki, and Loki held him.

**Author's Note:**

> [Thotki.tumblr.com](https://thotki.tumblr.com)


End file.
